plumage paradox n.— «My original instinct to buy the best is what I call the plumage paradox. A peacock’s dilemma is that having a large, beautiful tail attracts females, but it also attracts predators. The message the tail sends to the...
white tail n.— «The bigger worry for both Airbus and Boeing are the dreaded “white tails,” jets that come off the assembly line with no waiting buyers because the airline that ordered them has canceled or gone out of business...
tail swallowing n.— «More than two million HBOS shareholders will soon have to make a decision about whether they might be throwing good money after bad if they subscribe to the bank’s £4bn rights issue.…If you do not have enough...
Bop-lop-a-boom-bop lop-bam-boom. It's another issue of the A Way with Words newsletter! This past weekend we aired an episode in which a caller told us that she finds the word "moist" repugnant. She's not...
A caller shares colorful expressions from her Texas-born mother, including turkey tail and I’m gonna snatch you bald-headed. She also wonders why her mother says bread and butter every time they’re walking together and an object in their...
voodoo rig n.— «The large dinosaurs glide along, attached to low-slung go-carts run by jockey-size drivers. A second operator in a control booth uses a “voodoo rig”—a device that fits along the operator’s arm—to move a dinosaur’s body...